Tiger vs Gaur/Water Buffalo

Tiger vs Gaur/Water Buffalo

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Jul 8 10 1:00 AM

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I am amazed that there was no single thread regarding the outcome of a hypothetical fight between a Tiger and a Gaur or Water Buffalo from India.

The main reason I started this thread was actually to document authentic accounts about Tigers killing large Gaurs or water Buffaloes. I recently heard that Jim Corbett had mentioned of an account where a Tiger had single-handedly and completely dispatched a whole herd of 5 Buffaloes! Despite the Tiger's legendary strength and power, even this seems quite unbelievable. Could someone post this account?

Another I know of was given by Pollock from Bhutan (or Burma, if I remember correctly) where a Tiger had killed and dragged a Gaur which was so heavy that 13 men couldn't move it even a single inch!! But this account is authentic and must have happened.

I can see no reason to disbelieve that a tiger can and will kill adult gaurs and water buffalo. Especially before humans so over-crowded the planet. If a lion can ( in most cases ) kill a Cape buffalo, then the more powerful tiger should easily be capable of killing full grown gaur and water buffalo.

Well, I've come across too many scattered accounts of Tiger hunting huge Gaurs and Water Buffaloes. They are probably too numerous to accommodate here in a single thread without dragging for many pages. In fact, in many books the authors loosely mention the Tiger having killed a large Water Buffalo or Gaur, without any appearance of amazement or awe in the words, which shows that its actual quite common.

Why of course. For many areas of bengal tigers gaurs are the tigers main prey source. Kaziranga Park tigers dine routinely on adult Water buffalo. As far as predator and prey goes. Gaurs and Water buffaloes are common prey for the tiger.

fallenmonk wrote:Well, I've come across too many scattered accounts of Tiger hunting huge Gaurs and Water Buffaloes. They are probably too numerous to accommodate here in a single thread without dragging for many pages. In fact, in many books the authors loosely mention the Tiger having killed a large Water Buffalo or Gaur, without any appearance of amazement or awe in the words, which shows that its actual quite common.

Experienced adult tigers , male and female , prey on bull and cow adult gaurs , and water buffalo , when they are available . This is non-debateable . The tiger's amazing capacity for preying on large animals is what it is built for . It is more efficient in this regard , that is solatairy predation, than any other cat , since the time of the smilodon .

perrault wrote:Experienced adult tigers , male and female , prey on bull and cow adult gaurs , and water buffalo , when they are available.

No, that's not. Tigers will only prey on large bovines as a last resort. If such occurrences were that common, as you guys like to think, this should have been caught on tape at least a few times, which didn't happen. By the way, same goes for the ''tigers fight to death'' thing.

There was only two filmings of of a tiger killing deer ever , one just lately by simon king . Indian researches had literally tried for years to do so . Does this mean tigers rarely kill deer ? There are other methods besides film of finding a tiger kill . If you see a prime bull gaur lying there with deep wounds on neck , spine etc. and a tiger feeding on it , what do you believe killed it ? A mongoose , a dhole , ? Please do not be so stupid and believe tigers prey on bovine as a last resort . They prefer the largest prey they can find . Only someone with huge ignorance about tigers does not believe they prey on gaur and buff .

http://www.safariinternat...m/en/p_Ussuri-Russia.htm
Every so often, a lone lion will kill a Cape buffalo. The lion is not always successful. Sometimes the buffalo kills the lion. I believe that in some cases, the water buffalo or the gaur might kill a tiger. But, there is no doubt in my mind that tigers hunt these huge bovine. Siberian tigers hunt both moose ( called elk in Siberia ) and the world's largest wild boar. Both of these beasts can be every bit as deadly as a buffalo or a gaur. A wild boar can be incredibly savage.

Hey guys, just wanted to tell you that I got a documentary (german),
which contains a part, where they speak about Gaur and their interaction
with Tigers. They filmed a male Tiger lying next to his Gaur kill. They
say itÂ´s an adult Gaur but are not specific about the sex. PM me and I
can give you the links. Filmed in the Satpura National Park. Not HDTV! The filmed Tigers are actually from Kanha, I guess. Since they talk about the more successfull Kanha Reseve compared to Satpuri Reseve, when they show Tigers

Wanderfalke wrote:Hey guys, just wanted to tell you that I got a documentary (german),
which contains a part, where they speak about Gaur and their interaction
with Tigers. They filmed a male Tiger lying next to his Gaur kill. They
say itÂ´s an adult Gaur but are not specific about the sex. PM me and I
can give you the links. Filmed in the Satpura National Park. Not HDTV! The filmed Tigers are actually from Kanha, I guess. Since they talk about the more successfull Kanha Reseve compared to Satpuri Reseve, when they show Tigers

Some screens

What a nice info and cool pics. That tiger indeed seems to be from Kanha, looks like none other than the notable gaur hunting specialist, Langda himself.